The Rangers Of Skyrim
by Moslanman
Summary: Will Treaty wakes up in a carriage surrounded by not-skandians in a land called Skyrim. He has no idea why he is here or how he came to be here. However, when a dragon attacks just before his execution, Will must venture through the land of Skyrim, all the while facing the harsh landscape, mysterious new enemies with new powers never before seen, and, of course, mudcrabs.
1. The Introduction

"Hey. You. You're finally awake." Will slowly opened his eyes and looked around. The first thing he noticed was the skandian sitting in front of him. He was muscled, like a skandian should be. Furthermore, it appeared that the area was covered in snow. It look only a few moments for him to realize that he was moving. He was in a cart, going through the snow, sitting next to a skandian, and, as he noticed with dismay, his hands were bound with tight, leather cords. This was a prison cart. The skandian began speaking again.

"You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that imperial ambush. Same as us. And that thief over there." Will looked up and saw another skandian. He seemed both timid and angry as he addressed the first man.

"Damn you stormcloaks. Skyrim was fine until you came along. Empire was nice and lazy." Will was bewildered. Where was Skyrim? Surely this is Skandia? The 'skandian' continued.

"If they hadn't been looking for you, I'd have stolen that horse and been half way to Hammerfell."Hammerfell? Skyrim? What was going on? The man turned to Will.  
"You there. You and me, we shouldn't be here. It's these stormcloaks the empire wants."

"We're all brothers and sisters in binds now, thief." The first man replied.

"Shut up back there." Will turned. The man driving the cart had decided to speak up. His prisoners were being a bit too rowdy for his liking. Will studied him. From the angle he had, all that he could see was that the man had on a set of armor unknown to Will. It looked to be leather, but shaped to be something... distinct. The thief began again.

"What's wrong with him, huh?" He motioned to the last man in the cart. This last skandian was gagged. He was wearing the same armor as the other stormcloak, as they seemed to be called. The stormcloak seemed angry.

"Watch your tongue! You're speaking Ulfric Stormcloak, the true High King!" So, at least one of them has a name, Will though to himself. The thief thought for a moment.

"Ulfric... The jarl of Windhelm?" His voice turned dark. "You're the leader of the rebellion! But if they've captured you... Oh, Gods! Where are they taking us?" The stormcloak was dour.

"I don't know where we're going, but Sovengarde awaits." This sent the thief over the edge.

"No, this can't be happening. This isn't happening!" The stormcloak turned to him.

"Hey. What village are you from, horse thief?" The thief looked confused.

"Why do you care?"

"A nord's last thoughts... should be of home." The thief paused.

"Rorikstead. I'm, I'm from Rorikstead." Suddenly, the carriage driver shouted forward to the city that had just came into view.

"General Tullius, sir! The headsman is waiting!" The man, presumably a general, replied.

"Good. Let's get this over with." The thief spoke again.

"Shor, Mara, Dibella, Kinoreth, Akatosh! Divines, please help me!" They rode through a gate into a large, walled city. There was a group of people standing and conversing to the right of the carriage. As they followed the path to the left, the stormcloak spoke.

"Look at him." The said, staring into the group at the general who had been on the wall a moment ago. "General Tullius the military governor. And it looks like the Thalmor are with him. Damn elves." He said with disgust. "I bet they had something to do with this." Will focused in again at the mention of elves. They couldn't be serious, could they? Elves?

The stormcloak glared into the group a few moments longer, then looked around at the city.

"This... is Helgen. I used to be sweet on a girl from here. Wonder if Vilad is still making that mead with Juniper berries mixed in." He glanced at the large tower they were passing. "Funny. When I was a boy, Imperial walls and towers used to make me feel so safe..."

They passed a house with a large front porch. On it was a boy and his father. Will faintly heard the boy saying, "Who are they, daddy? Where are they going?"

The father quickly responded with, "You need to go inside, little cub." The boy looked up at his father.

"Why? I want to watch the soldiers." The father was adamant.

"Inside the house. Now."

"Yes, papa." The child stood up and walked back into his house as the carriage pulled up against a wall. The thief was worried again.

"Why are we stopping?" The stormcloak replied.

"Why do you think? End of the line." Will began to think. Surely there was a way out of this? The stormcloak looked up at Will. "Let's go. Shouldn't keep the gods waiting." They all stood up and walked out of the back of the carriage. The thief began to try to explain his position.

"No, wait. We're not rebels!" The stormcloak replied with disgust in his voice.

"Face your death with some courage, thief." The thief didn't let up.

"You've got to tell them! We weren't with you! This is a mistake!" No one responded to him. A woman up ahead, obviously in charge, took control.

"Step towards the block when we call your name. One at a time!" The stormcloak stood next to me and muttered, "The empire loves their damn lists."

The soldier next to Mrs. In-charge began calling names. Off to the left, the same was happening to the other carriage. "Ulfric Stormcloak, Jarl of Windhelm." As Ulfric stepped off to the left, the stormcloak next to me muttered again.

"It has been an honor, Jarl Ulfric." The soldier continued.

"Ralof, of Riverwood." The stormcloak, Ralof, followed Ulfric to the side as the soldier continued. "Lokir, of Rorikstead." The thief began to panic.

"No, I'm not a rebel! You can't do this!" He ran past the to soldiers in a panic. The woman called, "Halt!" Lokir kept running. "Archers!" Lokir was shot by the five archers standing about who had access to bows. Lokir fell flat on his stomach, dead, with five separate arrows in his back. At least the archers are good here, Will thought grimly. The woman looked at the crowd.

"Anyone else feel like running?" No one responded. The roll call started up again and the soldier looked at his list. And then again.

He looked up at Will and asked, "Who are you?"


	2. Who are you?

"Who... are you?" Will thought for a moment. He wasn't sure what to say. _Hey, I'm actually from a different country miles away from here! I have no idea where I am! _Probably best to keep to the bare basics.

"My name is Will Treaty." The solider nodded.

"You're a long way from the Imperial City. What're you doing in Skyrim?" Will groaned inwardly. More names of places. The solider went on. "Captain, what should we do? He's not on the list." Will perked up for a moment. Perhaps we wasn't to die today! However, his hopes were just as quickly expelled.

"Forget the list. He goes to the block!" The captain replied snappily. The soldier glanced back to Will with regret on his face.

"I'm sorry. We'll make sure your remains are returned to Cyrodiil." Will nodded. It wasn't his fault he was sentenced to die. He walked over to the block with the rest of the prisoners. He arrived just as the general was talking to Ulfric.

"...and now the empire is going to put you down, and restore the peace." Suddenly, a loud roar echoed through the city. Will's blood ran cold. The sound... could it be a Kalkara? No, it didn't sound quite right. But what was it? The others were anxious as well. Will heard the soldiers questioning about it to themselves, but they were quieted by the captain. She then turned to a priestess in yellow robes.

"Give them their last rights!" She commanded, and the priestess began to speak.

"As we commend your souls to Aetherius, blessings of the Eight Divines upon you, for you-" She wasn't able to finish, however, as a stormcloak soldier interrupted her and stepped forward.

"For the love of Talos, shut up and let's get this over with." The priestess looked offended and responded with a snappy, "As you wish." The guards came and pulled him over to the chopping block as he yelled at them.

"Come on! I haven't got all morning!." He was pushed down onto the block and was positioned for his execution. He looked up to the captain and spat at her," My ancestors are smiling at me. Can you say the same?" Then, just like that, he was gone. His body was kicked to the side of the block while the stormcloaks roared in anger. The captain ignored them, however, and moved to the next prisoner.

"Next, the renegade from Cyrodiil!" Will gulped. This was it. After all of his adventures, all of his near escapes, this was going to be his end. In some foreign country with no idea where his is, he was going to die. He stepped forward to the block. The imperials pushed him down to the block and the headsman took his mark. It was all over.

Then the dragon landed.

**AN**

**Hello! Moslanman here. Gonna be honest with you, this was going to be one chapter. However, it seemed a bit too long for one block, so I chopped it in half. Like that stormcloak. (Too soon?)**

**Anyway, I'm going to try for one chapter a week with this. Unless I don't do that. **

**Um.**

**/AN**


	3. The Fall Of Helgen

**A Brief Glimpse into The Mind Of Madness (Not Sheogorath [ ;D {Brackets!}] )**

Just want to clear up a few things about Will at the moment:

He just woke up in some random place after being ambushed (apparently. He can't quite remember). He is dizzy after being hit in the head during the attack, maybe he has a concussion, I don't know. Wait, I do know. He doesn't have a concussion. There, cleared that up. But he is still dizzy, confused, with no weapons or armor, hands bound, in a cart with a bunch of downtrodden Skandians (Nords? Does it really matter?) . Combine that with the fact that you don't read every thought he has makes for something that looks like Will giving up.

He isn't. That is all.

**And now back to your regularly scheduled Fan fiction:**

* * *

Fire and rain. An odd combination. Yet here Will was, in the middle of some foreign country at who knows where, with fire raining from the sky. One plus to this, however, was that Will was still alive. Spurred by that thought, Will pushed himself to his feet. It was difficult with his hands still bound, but he managed it. The entire square was in ruins. Bricks were strewn about the place, soldiers were running around with bows and- wait. Was that... fire... in that mans hand? Will watched as the man extended his arm and a ball of fire flew out into the sky. Will was baffled. HE didn't have much time to spare, though, as Ralof called over to him.

"Come on, prisoner! The gods won't give us another chance!" Ralof made a beeline for a large tower. Will ran after him. They entered the tower to find the rest of the stormcloaks strewn around, many injured. The Jarl, Ulfric, stood by the door. Ralof addressed him. "Jarl Ulfric, could the legends be true?"

The Jarl was grim. "Legends don't burn down villages." Will shivered. The tower was quite cold, as was the rest of the land. We would need new clothes from the ragged ones he was wearing. And a cloak. Definitely a cloak. But first, to escape with his life. Will followed Ralof up to the roof of the tower. They didn't make it all the way, though, as a dragon burst through the wall while they were trying to clear away rubble from the steps. The dragon spewed a stream of fire into the hole, killing one of the stormcloaks, and flew off to kill some other target. Ralof glanced out the hole in the tower and called Will over.

"See the inn on the other side? Jump through and keep going. We'll find another way out." Will gulped, and lept out the hole.

* * *

Will landed with a roll. The inn was a smoking mess. Will wormed his way out of it, coughing and falling in holes. He made his way to the main floor and came out of the charred hole in the corner. Across the way was a few imperial soldiers, including Hadvar. Will made his way over as Hadvar led a small child, the one from the balcony, away from the attacking dragon. The dragon never seemed to stay on the ground for too long, Will noted. Hadvar called him over.

"Still alive prisoner? Stay with me if you want to keep it that way." Will nodded. They ran down a narrow pathway before being interrupted by the dragon again. HE landed right above them to breath fire down at the courtyard. The dragon took off once again and they continued to an opening. There were more soldiers here, firing up at the dragon as he past. Hadvar led Will down through an open gate towards the castle's keep. The other gate to the keep had been filled in with rubble, but there was something moving! It looked like Ralof had returned. Hadvar addressed Ralof angrily.

"Ralof, you damned traitor! Out of my way!" Ralof responded in turn.

"We're escaping Hadvar. You can't stop us." They ran past each other to different doors into the keep.

Both called for Will to follow them.

**AN**

**Edit: The poll is now closed. BBecause I ended with a tie, Will shall follow...  
**

**...**

**(drama)**

**...**

**Hadvar!**

**/AN**


	4. Beginner's Kit

Will turned to Hadvar and followed him through the door. The room was simple, decorated with simple wooden furnishings and torches. Harvard turned to Will and looked him over. Will held out his arms and Hadvar jumped forward into action.

"Come here. Let's see if we can get those bindings off." Will was grateful as the ropes fell from his wrists. He rubbed the chafed skin as Hadvar surveyed the room. "Looks like their could be some gear in one of those chests. Look around and grab whatever you need." Will turned to a row of beds, each with a chest at the foot of the opened a few, but could only find swords and leather armor.

"This may sound odd," Will said, "seeing as you seem like a knight yourself, but would you happen to have a bow I could use instead of a sword?" Will was trying to make that seem like a normal request, but if this land was anything like Skandia, that would seem odd. And, as thought, Hadvar got a confused look on his face.

"Yes..." He said, sounding confused. He pulled a bow off of his back, how did that get there?, and handed it to Will. He also gave Will a full quiver of two dozen arrows. As Will tested the bow, Hadvar began muttering to himself.

"Why does it feel like I should be doing this later..." He shook his head and his face returned to normal. "No matter. We need to focus on getting out of here." He looked back to Will. "I'm guessing you wont be wearing armor?" Will looked sheepishly back at him and shook his head.

"It isn't really in my style, no. Do you happen to have some sort of cloak? And some clothes that aren't tattered?" Hadvar reached into his satchel.

"Here you go," he said, pulling out a bundle of clothes. " I don't have a cloak, but you can borrow a set of clothes for now. Here." He handed Will the bundle, and Will graciously took them. While he changed, Hadvar sat on one of the beds

"A dragon." He breathed, taking in the reality of the situation all at once. He looked over to Will. "And some strange man, who uses bows and no armor. You aren't from Cyrodill, are you?" Will looked at him.

"No, I'm not."

**AN**

**Woo! Christmas! Well, this was a nice little chapter (emphasis on little- holidays and all) but we got to see Will, in the space of a minute, throw the game storyline off track and reveal his secret all in one swoop. How the citizens of Skyrim will react is beyond me, for now. Myahahahaha. **

**In personal news, I got a Kindle Fire! Woo! It is quite nice, and has a unique writing feature- you can write words in one movement by running your finger across the keyboard and hitting the main letters of the word. In fact, that entire sentence was written that way. It's quite nice, really, an makes for some fun typing. But anyway, back to playing around with all of the cool little features!**

**/AN**


	5. Into Helgen Keep

Hadvar stared at Will, waiting for him to elaborate. Will opened his mouth to begin, but was interrupted by the dragon's loud roars and the shaking walls.

"No time for explanations, Will. We need to get out of here!" They ran over to the side of the room opposite the door they came in. There was a passage that way, taking them farther into the keep. Will stopped when an iron door blocked the way. Next to it hung down an iron ring on a metal chain, probably leading to a mechanism for opening the door. Will briefly wondered how that worked. That wasn't the reason he stopped, though. Just on the other side of the door, two Skandians- no, Nords- were standing and resting, probably just having arrived from the dragon fight. One was urging the other, the one sitting on the ground, to get up and keep moving. The sitting Nord replied that she just needed another minute. Hadvar crept up next to him, surveying the situation.

"Stormcloaks. Maybe we can reason with them." He mused to himself.

"Not likely." replied Will. "If your Nords are like my Skandians, the minute we walk out there, they'll attack. We need a different approach." He stood, pulled down the hood on his cloak, strung hies bow, and beckoned for Hadvar to open the door. HE shrugged, pulled the chain, and the gate began to rise. Will stepped out slowly, keeping his face shadowed, and his stance menacing. The Stormcloaks reacted quickly, jumping up and questioning him as to who he was. Will slowly turned his head to look at them, and nocked an arrow. The Stormcloaks paused, eying Will warily. When he raised the bow, the Stormcloaks began to worry.

"Place your weapons on the ground, slowly," Will said in a bored tone, "or you'll be a pincushion." One of the Stormcloaks, not impressed by the threat, hefted up his ax. Before he could even hold it upright, though, Will had an arrow in the haft, just above his fingers. Another arrow was instantly nocked. "Don't test me." He said, steel in his voice. Both Stormcloaks, now properly terrified and confused with this new marksman, placed their axes down on the cobbled ground. Satisfied that they were properly scared, Will called over to Hadvar. He came into the room, impressed.

"Tie their hands up." He commanded Hadvar. The imperial quickly circled around behind the Stormcloaks, binding their hands again. He picked up their weapons and dragged them over to Will. As he did, Will relieved the tension on his bow, replaced the arrow in his quiver, and looked down at the ax. "A shame to waste an arrow on this." He said, motioning to the crude weapon. Will looked back up to his prisoners. He went over and grabbed the knife and sheath off of the man, and told them to go to the table at one side of the room. The Stormcloaks sat in the chairs around said table and were told to not move. Hadvar went over to the gate on one side of the room. Using a key, he unlocked the gate and beckoned for Will to follow. Will glanced back to the Stormcloaks.

_Someone will find them,_ _eventually_ Will decided. Following Hadvar, he went through the gate, which Hadvar locked behind him.

* * *

"Well, that was quite something." Hadvar was talking to Will as they made their way down the passage. Will shrugged.

"Rangers are very good at intimidation." Will replied with a smile. "It comes with the job."

"What was your role, back in your kingdom I mean?"

"The Rangers policed the land, protecting the citizens and upholding the law. Among other roles." Will was uneasy sharing all of his secrets for now. They needed to focus on escaping the keep and avoiding the dragon, as well as any more Stormcloaks. They reached a section of the passage that had a door on their left, but still continued forward. Before they could turn either way, there was a large rumble, and the passage caved in, just past the door.

"Damn. That dragon doesn't give up easy." They turned to the door and entered. Inside was a storehouse, having a few barrels against a wall, as well as some furniture and rugs. Also, two more stormcloaks. These ones immediately began charging Will and Hadvar. They seemed to be in a beserker rage, unable to be reasoned with. Suddenly, there was a low twang filling the air, and an arrow protruded out of the chest of the Stormcloak on the right. He slumped to the ground as his comrade continued to charge forward. Hadvar went forward to meet him, bringing up his sword sideways to block the overhead swing from the Stormcloak. As the Nord staggered back from the resistance, Hadvar brought his sword into the left side of the Stormcloak, digging through his armor and cutting into his side. The Stormcloak tipped over to his side and stumbled a few steps to the right, axe limp in his hand. Hadvar quickly followed his blow by bringing his sword in an upward slash, digging a large gash into the Stormcloak's chest. Already unbalanced, the Stormcloak quickly hit the ground, dead. Breathing heavily, he turned back to Will, who was casually holding his bow at his side.

"You could have helped." Hadvar said, sarcasm in his voice.

"You seemed like you had in under control. I gave you some space, is all." Will smiled to him and looked around.

"This is an imperial storehouse. Look inside those barrels for some potions. We'll need them." Will looked back at him, a look of disbelief on his face. "Let me guess. You don't have potions in your land?" Will shook his head. "Well, that's your are wonderful here. Imagine a liquid, that when drunken, will instantly heal any cuts, bruises, or even broken bones."

"Interesting. Sounds quite useful." Will said, interesting. He thought about Malcolm, the healer living in Grimsdell Woods, and thought that he wold love this.

"Anyway, there are three different types of potions. Health potions, which obviously heal you, Stamina potions, which restore your energy, and Mana potions, which restore your mana." Will turned to him again.

"Mana? As in magic?" Hadvar nodded. "That explains the imperialism in the courtyard." Will would need to ask about that later, but for now,

"Lets go."

**-AN-**

**Wow, has this edition given me grief. First I was sick and unable to write it, then it doesn't publish when I tell it to. Well, it's out now, at least, so there's that.**

**I tried to make this one a bit longer to make up for missing a week, but the ending was a bit lack-luster for me. I just had to hurry to publish it quickly. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this small endeavour into Helgen Keep!**

**-A/N-**


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